Marketwatch cites an email from Wells Fargo which states:
“The receipt of TARP funds does not specifically say that we can not renew visas … [but] there are much more stringent expectations around it,” the email said. “Due to the fact that we have and will be displacing numerous U.S. citizens in your same positions […]

On March 31st of each year, otherwise known as “H-1B Eve” it is important to refresh our memories about the automatic “cap gap” extension that will apply again this year.  ICE recently published a memo of FAQs to help students and employers http://www.ice.gov/doclib/sevis/pdf/cap_gap_factsheet.pdf.
As long as a student is in valid OPT at the time of […]

Reuters is covering the annual ‘cap day’ festivities with a piece suggesting that the downtown will mean lower total filings,  no news there really.  the article does quote an Oracle VP surmising that the cap won’t be hit the first day.

The topic of our recent Business Immigration Monthly makes national news.  Complaints against employers are on the rise for paying wages below LCA requirements and denying equal benefits to foreign workers.  While enforcement of these complaints have been infrequent in the past, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis vows to step up enforcement against employers which could […]

Today’s Wall Street Journal has a nice article on the now several ways in which the U.S government is reacting to the economic downtown by making it harder to employ temporary foreign workers.

ComputerWorld is reporting that last week a delegation of representatives from India’s largest business groups visited Washington to discuss the H-1B Visa program with White House officials. Among those in the delegation was Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and CEO of Bharti Enterprises Ltd., India’s largest mobile phone operator. Mittal is noted as characterizing the meeting […]

In a document released  last weekend, USCIS clarified how the Stimulus bill will impact employers who have received TARP funds as they look to hire H-1b’s stating that the new restrictions “[apply] to any Labor Condition Application (LCA) and/or H-1B petition filed on or after Feb. 17, 2009, involving any employment by a new employer, […]

USCIS has released an updated guide for employers filling out I-9’s.  At 65 pages, it’s not exactly succinct, but it is useful.
This link goes to the PDF:   USCIS I-9

Now its The Economist, with a helpful bar graph, going to bat for skilled workers as engines of entrepeneurialism and growth - “Between 1996 and 2004 an average of 550,000 small businesses were created every month. One factor is a fairly open immigration policy”

Reuters is carrying an article from Diana Furchtgott-Roth, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in which she advocates immigration as a growth engine, pointing out that:
 
“By limiting visas, America is hurting itself, because the number and percentage of […]